Seating strings

[Ron Nossaman]

Michael Gamble wrote:
> Hello List and Ron who said: (inter alia)
> Here's the mantra... Strings don't climb bridge pins, and seating
> neither pins, nor strings cures the cause of false beats. It just
> does further damage to the cap.
>  
> I must confess to tapping strings on the bridge to get rid of false 
> beats. Most times it works. Rarely it doesn't. There has to be a reason 
> for that. So.... what is the preferred method of getting rid of those 
> false beats?
> Regards
> Michael G.(UK)


How often do you do it? Every tuning? If you do it on a regular 
basis with tuning, how long do you suppose that false beat you got 
rid of stayed gone? Was it a year, a month, a week, a day, or at 
least long enough for you to get out of the house? The cause 
typically is loose bridge pins. When touching the side of the 
speaking side bridge pin of the false string (opposite the string) 
with a screwdriver stops the beat, that's it. Seating the string 
often temporarily wedges the pin enough that it doesn't flagpole and 
cause the beat. Beat goes away. The tuner thinks he's fixed it, but 
it comes back as the string goes back where it was and the loose pin 
can again flagpole. The fix is to make the pin solid in the cap at 
the surface of the cap. CA or epoxy will do that, but it's not a 
casual field repair. For the most part, the customers don't hear (or 
at least don't mind) these noises. It's the tuners that are driven 
nuts by them. I usually just ignore them and press on. At most, and 
not often, I'll press down on a string just forward of the bridge 
pin with my thumb nail. I know it doesn't do anything good, but I 
haven't done any harm, and it sometimes makes a real screamer less 
bad temporarily. In my opinion, if the venue requires a piano 
utterly free of false beats, then it warrants a thorough job of 
repairing the cause, not a band aid seating of strings. The 
important thing here is that seating strings isn't something that is 
necessary to get the strings back down on the bridge, because they 
are already down on the bridge. It's almost always the loose pin 
that causes the false beat. Strings don't climb bridge pins.

Ron N